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Courses for SPRING 2008
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The Field of African Studies
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Macalester Faculty with African Studies Interests
David Blaney, Associate Professor of Political Science
Political theory and political economy of international relations
My work is on the social and political theory of international relations/international political economy and democracy, world politics and pedagogy. I have written on the idea of civil society, global civil society, and sovereignty, on culture and international relations theory and civilizational dialogue. A book, co-authored with Naeem Inayatullah, International Relations and the Problem of Difference, is forthcoming. The book explores the question: How is it that International Relations—the subfield of political science that might best describe, explain, and theorize cultural diversity—ends up largely ignoring it? The book traces this contemporary paradox to European religious wars of the 16th century and the simultaneous European “discovery” of the Amerindians. E-mail: blaney@macalester.edu
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 Erik Larson, Assistant Professor of Sociology
Ghana, Comparative Socio-Economic Processes
My work contributes to literatures in political sociology, economic sociology, and the sociology of law by examining patterns of uniformity and diversity in globalized institutions. As a comparative sociologist, I am interested in how social settings are created and institutionalized in particular locations and how this process impacts subsequent patterns of social action and relations between individuals and groups. To this end, I have studied the formation and operation of new stock exchanges in Ghana, Fiji, and Iceland. A second, collaborative project examines political contention and policy formation about indigenous rights, with a particular focus on economic affirmative action. I have completed research for this project at the United Nations Office in Geneva and in Fiji, while my primary collaborator has completed research in Tanzania. E-mail: larsone@macalester.edu
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 Sowah Mensah is the director of the African Music Ensemble and a studio instructor in a variety of traditional African instruments.
Ethnomusicology, composition, drumming, Ghana
Sowah Mensah is an ethnomusicologist, composer, and "Master Drummer" from Ghana in West Africa. He is a music professor at Macalester College and the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN, where he also directs each African Music Ensemble. Sowah has taught music in both Ghana and Nigeria and played with the Ghana National Symphony Orchestra. He is also the Director of Sankofa, a Ghanaian Folklore and Dance Ensemble in the Twin Cities. Both Sowah and the African Music Ensemble have their own web page where you may find more information. E-mail: mensah@macalester.edu
 David Chioni Moore, Associate Professor of International Studies and English, Director of African Studies Program
African literature, Western Africa (francophone and anglophone) and South Africa
David Moore counts himself as an "Afro-planetarist" -- that is, a scholar of the global literary/cultural dimensions and interconnections of the African and diasporic worlds. He has, for example, published on Alex Haley's historical/invented African ancestry, on Langston Hughes and South African writers, on Martin Bernal's "Black Athena" theses, white and black American students in Ghana, and on more traditionally African subjects such as the fiction of Ousmane Sembene. He reviews and reads regularly for Research in African Literatures and the African Studies Review, and has published Africanist materials there as well as in Transition, Diaspora, Callaloo, Frontiers, and elsewhere. Interesting Africanist note: oftentimes people who know David only by his writing mistake him for an Ibo, thanks to the "Chi" starting middle name. Great (and humorous) shock ensues upon face-to-face meeting. Chioni is the name of David's Italian grandfather. E-mail: mooredc@macalester.edu
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 Bill Moseley, Assistant Professor of Geography
Agriculture, development, environment, West and southern Africa
I am an environmental and economic geographer with a particular interest in African environmental and agricultural issues. My research over the past several years has fallen into three general categories: 1) empirically-based analysis of the interaction between broader scale political economy and the local environment in Africa; 2) critical assessment of the theoretical pillars of neo-classical economics and environmental conservation; and 3) applied work related to food security and environmental policy. I also was employed for ten years in the field of international development as a project manager and policy analyst for organizations such as Save the Children (UK), The World Bank Environment Department, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Peace Corps. I have worked and/or conducted fieldwork in Mali, Niger, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Lesotho. I have authored over 17 peer-reviewed articles and books chapters, and am the editor of two books: African Environment and Development: Rhetoric, Programs, Realities (Ashgate, 2003); and Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial African Issues (McGraw-Hill/Dushkin, 2003). E-mail: moseley@macalester.edu
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 Ahmed Samatar, James Wallace Professor and Dean of the Institute for Global Citizenship
Political economy, political and social theory, development, Somalia
My broad Africa research interests are in the areas of the political economy and social theory of development. With particular attention to the concept of the state and historical examination of the Somali experience, I have co/ written/edited five books and about thirty articles. The most recent (2002) is a co-edited volume, " The African State: Reconsiderations," includes nine case studies ( Botswana, Ghana, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Libya, South Africa, Ghana, Sudan, and Somalia). Currently, I am in the midst of a collaborative book with Professor Abdi Ismail Samatar (University of Minnesota) on leadership and the state in Somalia. Finally, I am a founding member and editor-in-chief of BILDHAAN: An International Journal Of Somali Studies. E-mail: samatar@macalester.edu
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 Dianna Shandy, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Migration, refugees, Sudan, Namibia, Ivory Coast
My research engages current methodological and theoretical debates about the anthropological unit of analysis, about concepts of home, and about the relationship between culture and territory. I began this inquiry as an undergraduate by examining the experiences of Africans studying in the former Soviet Union. I later looked at these questions in more depth in post-apartheid Namibia where I examined the influence of those who had been in exile during the war on the reconstruction of post-apartheid Namibian society. My current research focuses on Sudanese refugees in the United States. I have edited (with E. Gozdziak) two volumes on forced migration (Oxford University Press and the American Anthropological Association). I have authored several articles and book chapters about African refugees in the United States and their maintenance of ties to Africa. Currently under review is a paper I co-authored with U of MN Public Policy Professor Kathy Fennelly on Africans in rural MN. E-mail: shandy@macalester.edu
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 Jöelle Vitiello, Associate Professor of French
Francophone studies, cinema, Senegal, Mali
My connection to African Studies is mostly through teaching courses in Francophone African literature and cinema since my first year at Macalester (courses on Senegal/Mali, Senegal/Mali/Haiti, and West African cinema in a first-year course on Culture and identity). I have also led several workshops for the local francophone community (Allicance Française) and the local chapter of the American Association of Teachers of French on Senegal/Mali, Haiti, and North Africa. My research interests focus partly on Algerian and Haitian literature and culture around the concept of systemic violence. I have published several articles on Haitian literature, written in Haiti, and on Haitian literature from the diaspora in Quebec and Acadia. I am currently working on a research project about the Haitian diaspora in Senegal. My research interests regarding Sub-Sahara Africa include the general critical questioning of the concept of "francophonie", and a more general interest around issues of literacy, canon, representations of violence and culture. As I am on sabbatical leave this year, I am working on developing courses on francophone African literature and cinema. e_mail: vitiello@macalester.edu
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